‘Monsters U.’ Scares Up Terrific Business at No. 1

Mike and Sulley and the rest of the gang of collegiate scarers of Disney/Pixar’s Monsters University managed to scare up lots of tickets sales at the box office this past weekend. Pixar’s 14th features brought in $82 million in U.S. theaters and $136.5 million worldwide. Directed by Dan Scanlon, the movie is the No. 2 Pixar opening of all time, right behind Toy Story 3, which brought in $110 million in 2010.

Arriving at No. 2 for the weekend was Brad Pitt’s well-reviewed zombie pic World War Z, from Paramount, which opened to $66 million. According to box office watchers, this was the best opening of an original live-action movie since Avatar and Pitt’s largest U.S. opener. WWZ also made $45.8 million in 25 other markets, making its global take a nifty $111.8 million.

It’s been a good couple of weeks at the box office in the U.S. since the weekend revenue was an estimated $236 million, notable as it’s the second best of the year after Memorial weekend and among the top 10 weekends of all time.